sandip's blog

Check to make sure the quota package is installed, else run:

After creating a new partition (/dev/hda5) with fdisk run the below commands:

Extend partition by 1Gb.

• resize2fs has replaced ext2online in FC6.
  
• need to unmount volume prior to doing resize2fs.

If you have a corrupt rpm database, simply delete the db files and rebuild it again.

Below are some basic guidelines on setting up new hosting servers. This is only a point of reference to begin with and you should know what you are doing, else it is highly advisable to get an expert to work on setting up and securing the server:

Synopsis:

• Scan server with tools such as netstat, nmap, nessus etc...
  
• Disable services not required.
  
• Remove packages not required.
  
• Update all other packages.
  
• Secure Incoming and Outgoing ports.
  
• Move SSH to a different port and disable direct root login.
  
• Enable Antidos and BruteForce Detection.
  
• Scan for rootkits and setup daily reporting.
  
• Secure tmp and tmpfs.
  
• Secure binaries, paths and profiles.
  
• Secure Apache and PHP, and cofigure to expose minimum info about the applications used.
  
• Secure Ftp via TLS/SSL connection.
  
• ...

This is how I got host networking for VirtualBox and have it setup to use bridging on FedoraCore 6 host. This allows for two way traffic between the host and the guest. You will need bridge-utils and uml-utilities.

The first step is to configure the host with a bridge and a tap device. With this only the bridge will get an IP address and not the ethX nor the tapX device.

I am using dhcp to assign the IP addresses so the basic commands on the host are as below and can be put in the rc.local file for it to come up on boot:

You should now be able to use host networking in VirtualBox, just change "attached to" to "host interface" and add the interface name of "tap0" in your networking settings for the guest.

Notes:

If you're using a firewall on your host, make sure to turn it off when testing network setup.
I have had success with using APF as firewall which seems compatible with bridging.

References:

1. VirtualBox
   
2. Bridge
   
3. uml-utilities
   
4. 2.6.6 UML setup

Recently, I've had to convert a 15 minute infomercial for BetterDaysMinistries.org, a non-profit organization. I was provided with a dvd, that cycled the infomercial twice during playback. Besides, the phone number and address shown on the original infomercial was old and that information needed to be updated. Below are highlights of the whole conversion process.

These are some basic notes for reference just in case I need to do the migration thing again!!!

Steps taken on the old server

1. Created a new reseller account.
   

2. Created sites in the new reseller account as domain.com2 for the domains that needed to be migrated. DA won't let you add the same name twice, which is why I used a different one for the time being. Doing this will setup all the required files/paths needed to use the website.
   

3. Copied the files to the new domain.
   
   # cp -pR /home/olduser/domains/domain.com/* /home/newuser/domains/domain.com2/
# chown -R newuser:newuser /home/newuser/domains/domain.com2
4. Did a search for the old file path and updated it to the new file path.
   
   # for x in `find /home/newuser/domains/*/public_html -type f -print0 | xargs --null grep -l /home/olduser`; do perl -pi.bak -e 's/\/home\/olduser/\/home\/newuser/g' $x ; done
5. Swapped around the the email folders.
   
   # cd /etc/virtual
# mv domain.com domain.com.tmp
# mv domain.com2 domain.com
# mv domain.com.tmp domain.com2
6. Copied over the imap files. Any data in /home/olduser/imap needed to be copied over. There will also be permission issues as well, but can be fixed afterwards with the set_permissions.sh script.
   

7. Changed user for the imap files.
   
   # find /home/newuser/imap -user olduser | xargs chown newuser:newuser
8. Renamed the existing domains with a suffix of ".old".
   

9. Renamed the new domains to domain.com from domain.com2.
   

10. Logged in as reseller and created a backup.
    

11. Created a script and dumped out single databases.
    
    #!/bin/bash
# dbExport.sh

OLD_DB=(
db1
db2
db3
...
)

for ((i=0; i<${#OLD_DB[@]}; i++))
do
  mysqldump --opt -u root --password={psswd} ${OLD_DB[$i]} > ./db/${OLD_DB[$i]}.db
done
12. Did a search and created a list of folders with 777 permission set.
    
    # find /home/newuser/domains -perm 0777 -type d > 777.txt
13. Setup dns for each domain with a www1 A record to point to the new server IP. Better solution, would be to edit the local hosts file for testing purpose.

In its on going efforts to bring the power of FOSS based technologies to the mountainous asian nation of Nepal, the Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya has released a localised version of the Open CD.

The Open CD is a project to create a collection of FOSS applications that run on the Windows platform, from Open Office to Firefox and beyond.

Localized Free and Open Source Software, Nepali Open CD 1.0

Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya (MPP) has released the Nepali OpenCD 1.0 in January 9, 2007. The Nepali OpenCD 1.0 is a compilation of free and open source software localized into Nepali and runnable in the Windows operating system and developed by Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya. After the release of two different versions of NepaLinux, a localized Linux Distribution in Nepali, the development of the Nepali OpenCD 1.0 is yet another attempt of Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya for promoting the usage of localized Free and Open Source Software in the region. With the existing old legacies of the Windows operating system deeply rooted in the masses, the localized OpenCD is believed to be a motivating factor for switching to the Free and Open Source Software. The translation and localization of the software has been supported by the International Development and Research Centre, Canada under the PAN Localization Project.

Contents of the Nepali OpenCD

The localized Nepali OpenCD consists of the following software:
1.OpenOffice.org Suite (Office applications like Writer,Calc,Impress,Base etc.);
2.SeaMonkey Browser and Mail client (Browser and mail client);
3.Gimp (Image Manipulation Software);
4.FileZilla - 3(FTP Client Program for uploading and downloading files);
5.VLC Media Player (Software for playing audio video files);
6.Nepali Unicode Keyboard driver (Input System for Nepali).

Pre-requisites for running the software included in the OpenCD after installation

In order to run the software included in the OpenCD after installation, the Nepali Unicode Keyboard driver, also included in the OpenCD has to be installed first in the computer.

Both the Open CD and its sister project Nepalinux can be found at nepalinux.org

I was serving static content within a drupal installation, which became a huge nightmare when doing upgrades. So, I decided, I should just create a symbolic link to a folder outside the installation and route the traffic via mod_rewrite rules.

I first created a folder called "/var/www/site_files" and then symlinked to it from "/var/www/html/site_files". This way, I just have to recreate one single symbolic link after doing the upgrades.

With the below rules, I was able to maintain the links to the existing pages.